Browse Bible Study Resources

Daily Devotions

Jeremiah

Jeremiah 
Day 
Day 482

"Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise"

Text: Jeremiah 46:17

JEERING AGAINST THE PHARAOH

The tide had turned against Egypt and the Pharaoh. They were soundly defeated by the Babylonians. Egypt had hired mercenaries to fight for them. These soldiers would desert the Pharaoh.

“Why are your valiant men swept away?
They did not stand
Because the LORD drove them away.
He made many fall;
Yes, one fell upon another.
And they said, ‘Arise!
Let us go back to our own people
And to the land of our nativity
From the oppressing sword.’
They cried there,
‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise.
He has passed by the appointed time!'”
Jeremiah 46:15-17

1. “Why are your valiant men swept away?
They did not stand because the LORD drove them away”

a) The Egyptian army included many “valiant men”.

b) But they were swept aside.

c) The LORD Himself stood against them and thus they were defeated.

2. “He made many fall; yes, one fell upon another. And they said, ‘Arise!
Let us go back to our own people and to the land of our nativity from the oppressing sword.'”

a) It was the LORD who made them fall.

b) The valiant soldiers were surprised that they had lost so badly.

c) These were in fact mercenaries (Jeremiah 46:9).

i) From Ethiopia

ii) From Libya

iii) From Lydia

d) They realised that they would escape from the oppressing sword that was killing so many.

e) They were going back to their native lands.

3. “They cried there, ‘Pharaoh, king of Egypt, is but a noise. He has passed by the appointed time'”

a) They had once been impressed with the Pharaoh.

b) They had believed that the Pharaoh had been appointed for greater things.

c) He had passed that time.

d) The Pharaoh was “but a noise”.

e) There was no substance to his reputation as a mighty Pharaoh of a great nation.